Content note: Quotes wartime anti-German language, including "Hun", and period terms for racial and national groups. This object is shown as it was published. Why
This division was created on March 11, 1918, for the establishment of a war exhibition to be used by State fairs throughout the country. Several meetings were held with a committee representing the American Association of State Fairs and Expositions with a view to ascertaining the course to be pursued. Kepresentatives of the Departments of the Navy, Agriculture, Commerce, the Interior, and of the Food Administration cooperated with the Committee on Public Information, and formed a joint committee to prepare plans and adopt the ways and means for this Government exhibit.
An itinerary was arranged, covering approximately 60 State fairs and expositions, for which was required three carloads of material. It was arranged that each fair association should provide suitable space in an inclosed building, paying transportation for the material on their respective circuits, also the cost of transportation and subsistence of a motion-picture operator, and such other men as were not otherwise provided for, have proper facilities and men for unloading, setting up and taking down the exhibits, and for cleaning and guarding the exposition building. All other expenses to be borne by the Committee on Public Information.
In carrying out the exhibit program the Government sent its lessons to the very doors of about seven million people throughout the country, telling by well-selected objects what the great departments in Washington were doing to bring victory to the armies that were fighting for truth and justice. The plan of exhibition, as finally arranged, divided the country into the following six circuits:
Circuit No. 1:
Sedalia, Mo., August 10-17, Missouri State Fair.
Des Moines, Iowa, August 23-31, Iowa State Fair.
Hamlin (St. Paul), Minn., September 2-7, Minnesota State Fair.
Milwaukee, Wis., September 9-14, Wisconsin State Fair.
Oklahoma City, Okla., September 21-28, Oklahoma State Fair.
Wichita, Kans., October 7-12, Wichita Fair.
Dallas, Tex., October 15-27, Texas State Fair.
Waco, Tex., November 2-14, Texas Cotton Palace Association. Circuit No. 2:
Springfield, 111., August 9-24, Illinois State Fair.
Detroit, Mich., August 30-September 8, Michigan State Agri cultural Society.
Nashville, Tenn., September 16-21, Tennessee State Fair.
Memphis, Tenn., September 21-28, Memphis Tri-State Fair.
Knoxville, Tenn., October 7-12, East Tennessee Fair.
Atlanta, Ga., October 14—19, Southeastern Fair Association.
Valdosta, Ga., October 30-November 9, Georgia State Fair.
Jacksonville, Fla., November 27-December 6, Florida State Fair and Exposition. Circuit No. 4:
Columbus, Ohio, August 26-31, Ohio State Fair.
Indianapolis, Ind., September 3-7, Indiana State Fair.
Topeka, Kans., September 9-14, Kansas Free Fair.
Hutchinson, Kans., September 16-21, Kansas State Fair.
Muskogee, Okla., September 30-October 5, Oklahoma Free Fair.
Kansas City, Mo., October 16-26, International Soil Products Exposition.
Shreveport, La., October 30-November 4, Louisiana State Fair. Circuit No. 5 :
Lincoln, Nebr., September 1-6, Nebraska State Fair.
Douglas, Wyo., September 10-14, Wyoming State Fair.
Pueblo, Colo., September 23-28, Colorado State Fair.
Salt Lake City, Utah, September 28-October 5, Utah State Fair.
Los Angeles, Calif., October 12-26, California Liberty Fair. . Phoenix, Ariz., November 11-16, Arizona State Fair. Circuit No. 6:
Huron, S. Dak., September 9-14, South Dakota State Fair.
The combined Government exhibit for each circuit consisted of the following material :
From the War Department:
Ordnance Department : Machine guns, rifles, mountain guns, hand grenades, trench helmets, and Infantry equipment. Signal Corps : Eight live carrier pigeons, various kinds of handsignaling apparatus, portable field-wireless outfit, aviators' clothing, and an aerial bomb.
Medical Depaitment : Gas masks, emergency first-aid kits, fieldhospital chests, model of a base hospital, electric magnet for extracting steel, and a complete outfit of splints for use on wounded men.
Quartermaster Corps: Four lay figui'es, showing different types of uniform, models of the various kinds of tents, collection of campaign badges, display board showing various chevrons of rank of noncommissioned officers, silk colors, and bunting flags.
Corps of Engineers : Chests showing the various tools and appliances used by this corps.
Commission on Training Camp Activities: Photographs showing some of the activities of the commission.
Committee on Public Information : A series of enlarged photographs showing the part taken by our country in the winning of the war.
Navy Department: The exhibits from this department consisted of Marine Corps equipment, Lewis gun, also projectiles, depth bomb, naval mine and anchor, destroyer and submarine winter clothing, insignia and chevrons of commissioned and noncommissioned officers.
Department of Agriculture: Consisted of materials from the following branches of the department : Bureau of Forest Service, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bureau of Animal Industry, Bureau of Chemistry, Bureau of Markets, Bureau of Entomology, and the Biological Survey. This exhibit consisted of photographs and photographic enlargements, transparencies, charts, diagrams, maps, samples or specimens, and models of special pieces of apparatus and instruments of various kinds used in the investigations carried on by the different bureaus.
Department of Commerce: Exhibit from this department consisted of a display of its work in connection with the propagation and distribution of edible fish and the experiments being made in the use of fishskin as a substitute for leather.
Food Administration: The Food Administration exhibit consisted of 12 decorative panels illustrating the history of the Food Administration, charts showing propaganda material of the Educational Division, and display cases containing samples of the work done by the Home Conservation Division.
Department of the Interior: This department placed its specially fitted mine rescue cars at the disposal of those fairs that had trackage facilities on their grounds. The cars were accompanied by their regular crews, who gave demonstrations of the mine rescue apparatus. This exhibit Avas made without expense to the fair associations that were able to avail themselves of same.-
There was also prepared a motion-picture exhibit for circuits 1 to 5, and a large collection of jfilms was gathered for this purpose, and the Government furnished its own machine and a motion-picture operator, the Committee on Public Information paying the salaries of two of these men and the Department of Agriculture providing for the other three.
Owing to the epidemic of Spanish influenza, it was found necessary to call off the Government exhibits at the following places :
Circuit No. 1 : Dallas, Tex.
Circuit No. 2 : Richmond, Va. ; Petersburg, Va.
Circuit No. 3 : Knoxville, Tenn. ; Macon, Ga,
Circuit No. 4 : Kansas City, Mo. ; Shreveport, La.
Circuit No. 5 : Phoenix, Ariz.
And the exhibit at the California Liberty Fair Association, Los Angeles, Calif., was not held until December 4 to 15.
Upon request, the War Department detailed five enlisted men from the Ordnance Department, the Medical Department, and the Signal Corps, which enabled the assignment of one man from each of these departments to each of the circuits, and the Navy Department likewise sent a marine and a sailor on each circuit.
As the combined exhibit was operated under the executive direction of the Office of Exhibits of the Department of Agriculture, that office designated an official of the Department of Agriculture in charge of each circuit and two assistants.
Capt. Joseph H. Hittinger, assigned to duty with the Committee on Public Information by the War Department, deserves the entire credit for the conduct of this division, directing it throughout, and driving it to complete success by his ability and energy.
Complete Report of the Chairman of the Committee on Public Information, George Creel, Chairman, Committee on Public Information. A work of the United States government, printed by the Government Printing Office in 1920, so not protected by copyright in the United States (17 U.S.C. 105) and in the public domain by age as well. The Library of Congress states that it is unaware of any copyright restrictions on the item. Provenance and rights.